Medical devices such as cardiac systems, drug delivery systems, neurological products and similar other products are implanted in patients for various clinical reasons. Some of these devices may collect and document data on a continuous basis. However, the state of the art is currently to ask patients to see their doctors or other health professionals on a regular basis to retrieve and check the physiological data collected in these devices.
As medical devices become very sophisticated, in both reliability and maintainability, the need for patients to visit their doctors on a regular basis may not be required by coverage plans or for other rationale. Various attempts to remotely engage or monitor patients or medical devices/systems have been suggested, such as for example those generally described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,261,230; 6,206,829; 6,221,011 B1; 6,203,495 B1; 6,250,309 B1; 6,168,563 B1; 6,108,635; 6,101,478; 6,050,940; 6,004,276; 5,987,519; 5,911,687; 5,781,442; 5,752,976; 5,633,910; 5,619,991; 5,544,661; and 5,508,912. However, for patients with chronic disease, the management of the disease has become a critical aspect which affects both the cost of health care and the quality of life of the patient. Accordingly, patients with implantable medical devices or externally mounted devices that monitor critical medical data are either kept in hospitals or the patients are required to visit their physicians on a very regular basis.
Accordingly, a data transfer and review system that enables doctors and physicians to monitor patients on an as-needed basis and as frequently as possible, while allowing patients to stay at home, is a highly desirable service. Such a service would also enable the patient to have access to their own personal data by enabling real time data management and review by professionals as well as the patient. Further, medical devices could be designed to enable patients to be interactive with the devices that are monitoring their physical and medical parameters such that the patient could also be involved in managing their disease on a day-to-day basis. More specifically, if patients are allowed to have access both to the operation of their device and reports that are stored in them, they may have sessions with their doctors and will also be well-informed in managing their disease, thereby becoming active partners in the management of their own disease. Various economic opportunities may also arise from such accomplishments.
Various online systems or data mining systems are also known and described generally in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,260,050; 6,253,193; 6,205,437; 6,192,114; 6,112,194; 5,819,092; and International Publication WO 01/22265.